The Educational Project in Portugal, as a fundamental instrument for school autonomy, must concentrate the main expectations of the school community, involving rigor in the research methodology used for its elaboration and in the implementation of the changes required. This article reports how these aspects were achieved in a high school, using the Creative Problem Solving method and involving the whole school community, over more than one year. According to the established planning, the preparation of the Educational Project followed the steps of a research project, resulting in a strategic and operational document, which was subsequently subjected to various implementation attempts. However, the success was only relative. The discussion of the conditions necessary for the final document to be the basis for the implementation of policies and actions, by simplifying the whole scheme of school functioning, from the perspective of the effective management of organizations, is initiated here and suggested for future investigations.
Organizational innovation; Schools; Problem solving
